I also went to a junior high that was 7, 8 and 9, but my parents pulled me out to go to a high school that started in 9th grade. Our kids middle school never tired of telling us that the difference between junior highs and middle schools was that middle schools were more child focused. They had teams where all the kids had the same teachers, and the school was organized by those teams as opposed to being organized by the subjects the teachers taught. It never seemed that different to me, but they set great store by it.
When I went to (public) K-12 school, grades 7-8 were in a school called a “junior high school” (the school is still called that, with the same grade levels). K-6 were in the “elementary school”, and 9-12 were in the “high school”.
Whatever the original differences between “middle school” and “junior high school”, it is likely that many use the terms interchangeably.
Another 60’s kid here who walked to elementary school with the neighborhood kids or on my own. I was free to roam the neighborhood, including the big patch of woods where I would climb trees and the pond where I’d catch frogs. I also spent a lot of time riding my bike. Sometimes I’d do these things with a friend but just as often alone. All of this was when I was 8 and under-I know because we moved from that neighborhood before I turned 9.
The summer we moved to the new neighborhood I got to explore the area on my own and find the route to my new elementary school. The next day I was the one who showed my little brother where his kindergarten would be.
My mom was a very hands-on mom, but then I’d say that about the vast majority of the mothers in my neighborhood, and I think that’s what allowed us to have so much freedom; everywhere we went there were eyes on us even if we didn’t realize it. The moms all looked out for each other’s kids, even the moms whose kids were grown and out of the house. Back then so many of the mothers were SAHM’s.
Today I’d have a much harder time allowing a kid the freedom I had. There just aren’t enough kids around to have a neighborhood gang with older kids looking out for younger ones and mentoring them, and the network of neighborhood spy moms isn’t there any more, at least on my street.
^ Last paragraph says a lot! Completely agree. We used to hang with our neighborhood friends all day long, sometimes in the neighborhood, other times elsewhere, but there was always a group of us doing something. Nothing was organized. It was more like you went outside and found something to do. Usually other kids would be around and before you knew it there would be a whole group. We went everywhere. No one checked in with their parents. It was just understood to be back for dinner and then you’d go back out again.
We’ve lived on the same street for 20 yrs and I don’t even know most of my neighbors. Hardly ever see kids outside. No such thing as the neighborhood school here. There is one but most go to a variety of privates or charters or magnets half way across town. S’ neighborhood elementary group split up into 3 or 4 middle schools and 6 or 7 high schools. The kids just go from one activity to the next, all of it organized for them. They’re busy but they don’t really have to think (about what to do or where to do it).
I grew up in the 70s in a planned community where there were multiple elementary schools centered in the various neighborhoods that then fed into three junior high schools that fed into one high school. Outside of the court-ordered desegregation busing that occurred which brought kids from far away into our local schools, everyone else lived within walking distance, no more than a mile from their elementary and junior high schools. We had “safety patrol” which were older kids who were assigned to assist younger kids with crossing the streets. Sadly, it took one of my friends, then in 6th grade, nearly dying after getting hit by a car on the only major road along the route, for my school to hire an adult crossing guard for that intersection.
High school was a bit different-you had to live 2 miles or more to be able to ride the bus to school. I was one of the unfortunate ones who lived 1.9 miles. I had a ride in the morning with a neighborhood kid, and usually was able to find a ride from someone in the afternoons.
As for “stranger danger” being “such bull” - i suppose if you have never encountered it, it is easy to say that. When I was 12 and walking home alone from the local pool 1.5 miles away, I noticed a car pass by me slowly, two times. The third time, he pulled up beside me to ask directions. I noticed right away through his car window that he was masturbating. Though I didn’t exactly know what he was doing at the time, I did know what the large thing sticking up between his legs was and immediately took off running. He thankfully did not follow me. I never ever walked to the pool again. I never told anyone because I was so embarrassed. It did hamper my social life because I wouldn’t walk to my friends’ houses anymore so unless they came to my house or my mom drove me, I stayed home. Thank goodness I loved reading.
When I was in college, my cousin’s friend was kidnapped and murdered by a stranger. My cousin was one of the last to see her alive and at 10 years old, had to be interviewed by the FBI and meet with a sketch artist. I’m pretty sure that had a lasting impression on her (it did on me and I wasn’t even remotely involved). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Amy_Mihaljevic
So yeah, while “stranger danger” might not be something the majority of kids face, it absolutely is NOT bull. As a result of my experience (and there were several others I had when I was a little older with flashers, etc), it definitely is in the recesses of my mind as the mom of four kids, two of whom are female.
I am not a helicopter mom, in fact I was often told how laid back I was, but I mostly did not allow my (young) kids to go places alone. With a friend, sure, but alone? No. They had free range in our neighborhood with neighborhood kids but there is no place to easily walk to so I didn’t have to worry about them venturing far and there was plenty to keep them occupied in the neighborhood. We live at the end of a 2 mile long peninsula only accessible by a heavily traveled very narrow road with no sidewalks or shoulders. As a result, due to my concern of inattentive drivers on cell phones, they were not allowed to ride their bikes outside of our community until they were teenagers. My husband rides long distances, and I even worry when he rides along that road which happens to be a popular route for bicyclists. I have seen the very unsafe passing by motorists, something often complained about on our neighborhood FB page.
My kids went/go to private school, but the public school kids mostly ride a bus to the elementary school as it is at the top of our peninsula. The only ones who walk are the two communities immediately adjacent to the school where there are sidewalks the entire way. The middle school and high school are much further away and not in walking distance to most of their population so the majority ride buses.
The thing about young kids is that they have terrible judgment. Adam Walsh, , Etan Patz, were both abducted in broad daylight with lots of other people around. They likely just had ( totally age appropriate)terrible judgment in going with someone who approached them. It was these disappearances that made parents especially wary. The chance of a child encountering a malevolent stranger is extremely low BUT on the other hand the chance that if they do they won’t have the judgment to avoid them is pretty high. For me though it wasnt stranger danger that I was worried about. It was that their level of judgment at a young age was such that I didn’t trust them to avoid the more likely danger: a car when crossing the street.
I have never worried that my kids would be abducted (and I think I used the word kidnapped above, but I meant abducted). I used that example above as well as one of the few frightening experiences I personally had, to point out that for some of us, stranger danger has not been bull. I do agree, that crossing streets/ cars are much more likely to be a problem for kids out roaming around than strangers.
My bother and I were always roaming around the neighborhood in the mid 60’s and on; usually with other kids. The one rule was we had to return by dark! Halloween night we would actually go into peoples home and have treats that were homemade. My parents finally allowed me to ride my bike to school, which was 0.6 miles across one busy street with a crossing guard in 3rd grade; this after I begged them for a year. They finally gave in when I won the school’s bike rodeo 
There were woods that my brother liked to play in with a few friends; they would go often with parents permission.
In the late 80’s and 90’s, we lived in a neighborhood where kids were outside all day; wondering from house to house. My kids were 3 and 6 when looking out the window, you would see close to 20 kids playing red rover. The kids ranged in ages from 2-18; yes, my 3 year old was out there without a parent. Once they were riding bikes, my rule was your bike had to be in the front of the house you were in, so I knew where to find you! All the young boys were at one house or another with a stay at home parent, or one home from work; we never worried about the boys. We did have one episode where my daughter at the age of 3 could not be found. She was at a friends house 4 doors away, and was sent home as they were leaving. She found another child to play with and went home with him; unfortunately, we didn’t know this family, so when we couldn’t find her, didn’t know to check their house. It was a scary hour of neighbors looking for her, including the mailman. Rules were updated about where she could and couldn’t go, but we still allowed her to walk to her close friends home; of course I watched from the window.
In the mid 90’s we moved to a new neighborhood where while plenty of kids, none of them were outside. My kids had a hard time making neighbor friends as they went to private school, so didn’t know the kids from school. My social butterfly of a daughter would knock on doors looking for someone to play with! We all missed the old neighborhood, and since it was close, ended up driving the kids over to play with old friends.
It is a shame most of our children and grandchildren will not have the freedom to play like many of us had. Organized activities are fine, but there is nothing better than going out and just getting dirty and playing made up game. That is not to say I didn’t go to Brownies or ballet, but most of the summer and weekend was spent outdoors when weather permitted. If not, I walked to a friends house and we colored, played with doll or toy; we didn’t need mom to arrange a playdate.
I feel sad that people don’t know their neighbors. We were at our next door neighbor’s yesterday and there were at least four other couples from our block. I know at leasts two other families on the block who weren’t at the party (much older, one couple is now quite frail). That said, I agree that the lack of SAHM’s is one reason you see fewer kids on the street. We do have two families whose kids regularly go up and down the sidewalks on their bikes. (And the kids are under seven.)
Shows like Criminal Minds have scared us into worrying about the wrong risks.
As I said, never worried about abduction. Totally worried about lack of judgement and street crossing. Which studies absolutely establish is a legitimate issue. Of course most of the time it’s fine. Just like not wearing a seat belt or riding in the front seat at a young age.
300 sounds plenty high to me.
The “walking around/crossing streets” was one of the strange things in When you reach me a novel about children in NYC in 1979.
We lived “out of town”, so my parents drove us although we could go home on foot if needed as it was only about 2 miles. Most kids walked to school if they lived “in town” [ 3,000 ppl]. You could just follow the sidewalk though, not much street crossing.
My kids went to a school (the school where I worked) that was not within walking distance and we didn’t live in the area that was served by the bus. A few kids who lived in the surrounding neighborhoods did walk to the school, but most kids drove or took the bus.
H and I both walked to school as children. But, then again we lived quite close to our schools. Heck, my friend who lived 3 doors down could see our elementary school from her front yard.
We currently live in a neighborhood that has a middle school very close by and kids who attend the school and live in our subdivision walk to school. It would be silly not to…heck, it’s probably quicker to walk from our neighborhood because the line to turn into the drop off area is a mess! My eye doctor lives right behind the elementary school that serves our area and all the kids from his neighborhood, including his own kids, walk to the school. That said, I don’t know any kids who walk more then a half a mile to school at the most…
In my day and H’s day we walked to and from school with our siblings and neighbors. It was rare to walk to school alone and it was almost unheard of for mom or dad to drive you to school.
One major difference between now and then…is that a lot of moms didn’t work. I only knew a few kids whose mothers worked. When you got home from school, mom was at home. Also, our street was basically all families. I don’t remember any single people. And I only remember a few people who didn’t have kids. A couple whose kids were all grown up and a very young couple who hadn’t had kids yet. And lastly, we pretty much knew all our neighbors. My mom knew all the other moms on the street and all their kids and they knew me and my siblings and parents too. I think this made a big difference in the amount of freedom we were given. Nowadays, H and I know a few of our neighbors, but not super well and we certainly don’t know everyone on our street.
Also, nowadays kids are in so many extracurriculars and are so busy, people aren’t home a lot. I remember in my day it seemed like people were always home and ready to play. Even if kids aren’t in so many activities these days, it seems like families are always at the mall, the movies, the beach, Disneyland, etc. When I was a kid, we didnt seem to go out as much. In my day, the only after school activities were: dance, boy scouts, girl scouts, piano, church choir, and little league. Obviously, in high school kids did more stuff after school…but still.
@roethlisburger Stranger abductions may be rare in part because parents are so paranoid about them. There have been several incidents in the past few years in our safe, middle-class neighborhood (publicized by law enforcement) where strangers were following school-age girls or trying to lure them somewhere. Girls ran away because they were aware that abduction do happen, or they could have become part of this statistics.